1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to accessories for use with conveyor systems used to convey a plurality of containers or other items. More particularly, the invention relates to an accumulator table to receive and discharge containers or other items.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Accumulator tables have long been used with conveyor systems for assisting in maintaining the speed of the conveyor lines by serving as buffering mechanisms. An accumulator table may be loaded manually and then used to discharge its contents at a predetermined rate, or it may be loaded from an input conveyor and then discharge its contents onto an output conveyor. For example, packaging or other conveyor systems receive containers (or other items) from a source location and transport the containers to various locations along the line for further processing. The rate at which the containers are fed into the conveyor system is generally fairly constant although occasionally, because of a mismatch between the rate at which containers are fed into the system and the rate at which various processing operations occur, there may be too many containers at a given point in the processing line. The containers must then be temporarily diverted from the line onto one or more accumulator tables in order to prevent containers from blocking the conveyor line and allow the processing operation to catch up to the rate at which containers are fed into the system.
Generally, known accumulator tables each have a rotating turntable surface and do achieve the function of temporarily accumulating containers and discharging them appropriately as the system catches up and is able to accommodate the extra, accumulated containers. However, all of the known prior art accumulator tables are deficient in one respect or another. All known accumulator tables are inefficient because they are unable to store containers on their entire operating surface, generally because of some mechanical component or structural feature which takes up space on or above the rotating turntable surface of the accumulator table, thereby preventing the table from accumulating as many containers as it would normally do otherwise. Also, known accumulator tables are inefficient in discharging 100% of the accumulated containers. For example, one known turntable design utilizes a coiled flat piece of spring steel mounted from an overhead support above the turntable surface. The spring is coiled during the loading of the turntable and, as items are discharged from the turntable, the spring pushes the items towards the turntable periphery. As the periphery of the turntable gets congested as items are being accumulated, more and more infeed pressure is necessary to cause the items to push against the spring which is continually being coiled tighter. It has been found nearly impossible to produce a spring that can be fully compressed while also being able to completely uncoil in order to discharge all of the items from the turntable. This prevents the turntable from ever being completely filled if it is expected to also be completely emptied at any point in time.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to produce an accumulator table capable of maximizing the number of containers or other items which may be accumulated on its turntable surface and also being able to discharge all of the accumulated containers as needed.